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Referees when a student applying for NQT posts

I am a student applying for a general post though they accept NQT's. They've specified that they want a reference from my head at my current teaching position. However I've only just started my second teaching placement and have only taught one lesson. I was therefore going to put the head from my first placement, however it seems more appropriate to put my mentor down not the head. What should I do?

I am a student applying for a general post though they accept NQT's. They've specified that they want a reference from my head at my current teaching position. However I've only just started my second teaching placement and have only taught one lesson. I was therefore going to put the head from my first placement, however it seems more appropriate to put my mentor down not the head. What should I do?

I am on PGCE at the moment. We have been advised not to use our school placement head teachers on our reference, but to put our Uni head of course. This is because our school mentors and placement comments are used as part of the reference. Your uni might have a similar policy. Good luck applying!

Certainly your Tutor from your uni course is the best reference. For a second referee you can often put the school mentor or Head of Department from a placement.
The obligation to have current Headteacher is for serving teachers only.
Make sure that you write the Best Possible Application - it's tough out there, sometimes there are over 200 applicants for a job. Follow my advice in the shortlisting clickables in the Welcome thread to really do yourself justice.
For that lucky person who has got an interview - well done! Now go and read the advice in the Interview clickables.
Best of luck to you all!
____________________________________________________________TheoGriff. Member of the TES Careers Advice Service.
The TES Careers Advice service runs seminars and workshops, one-to-one careers and applications advice, one-to-one interview coaching and an application review service.
I do Application and Interview one-to-ones, and also contribute to the Job Application Workshops. We look at application letters, executive summaries and interviews.
The next Workshops I'm doing that still have vacancies are on Sunday 13th and Friday 25th February. There is also a specialist Workshop for applications to SLT on Saturday February 19th.
Go to https://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storyCode=6060678 for more details of these and other seminars.
Look forward to seeing you!